"Never glad confident morning again" This was the phrase used by Nigel Birch in the Profumo debate of June 1963 to encapsulate the situation in which Prime Minister Harold Macmillan found himself. Four months later, Macmillan decided to resign. I have always been struck by the similarities between Macmillan and Johnson. They both went to Eton and B...
Instinctively, I am sceptical about public inquiries and the like. Having lived long enough to see successive governments use inquiries as a means to avoid difficult questions "in the moment" and then avoid the same difficult questions when the findings of the inquiry are reported as "it is all in the report and we will learn the lessons from it", ...
Whilst Plan B restrictions are now lifted in England, the Coronavirus Act, which grants the government sweeping draconian emergency powers, inter alia lockdowns, vaccine passports, work from home orders and mask mandates remains live legislation until 25th March 2022 when it is due to be renewed or it will expire. The government could termina...
Whether the PM had gatherings/meetings/parties at No 10 and/or Whitehall is merely 'froth' or 'fluff', compared with the events unfolding throughout the country and the world. It is this unbalanced focus on trivia that has increasingly annoyed me, to the extent that I have been motivated to put metaphorical pen to paper, in an attempt to highlight ...
At school, in a lesson in Geography, I learned about the creation of corries in Scotland. They were formed by the action of ice in grinding parts of the mountains there. The mountains lost their points and became rounded. That ice had been from one to three miles thick. It melted several thousand years ago, at the end of an ice-age. The former tops...
In defence of democracy, Roslyn Fuller, Polity, 2019 This is a great book. Roslyn Fuller, the Director of the Solonian Democracy Institute, punctures with evidence and wit the arrogance and pomposity of those politicians and academics who tell us what to think and do. After the two 2016 shocks, the majority vote to leave the EU and the election of ...
It has been a week of melodrama in the latest instalment of the soap opera that is the Conservative & Unionist Party. Talk of a "pork pie plot", so called as the Rutland & Melton MP, Alicia Kearns, one member of the 2019 new intake of Conservative MPs was allegedly pivotal in it, was seized on by the mainstream media whose appetite for the ...
Spartan victory: the inside story of the battle for Brexit, Mark Francois, paperback, 464 pages, ISBN 9798484798391, Kindle Direct Publishing, 2021. Mark Francois, the MP for Rayleigh and Wickford in Essex, and chairman of the European Research Group, has written a fascinating account of that part of the battle for Brexit that was waged in th...
The cult of Wokeism, like Japanese knotweed is growing relentlessly and without radical surgery will consume all before it. The Marxist, identitarian left, unable to win at the ballot box, has instead hijacked British institutions with devastating results. The culture wars are real but largely only one side is fighting. Social conservatives must fi...
Who could have predicted that of all the Downing Street scandals of the last two and a half years, the parliamentary Conservative party would finally divide...over an actual party? In the name of public health, Boris Johnson and his government punitively repealed and restored basic civic autonomies as they pleased. Now it transpires that at a time ...
The case for a new Bretton Woods, Kevin Gallagher and Richard Kozul-Wright, paperback, 163 pages, ISBN 978-1-5095-4654-1, Polity Press, 2022, £9.99. Kevin Gallagher is Professor of Global Developmental Policy and Director of the Global Developmental Policy Center at Boston University. Richard Kozul-Wright is Director of the Division on Global...
Over its long and varied history Britain has suffered, from time to time, some terrible leaders, both Kings and Prime Ministers. Some have been ruthless tyrants, some just plain useless and some underhanded and treacherous. Tony Blair who was the Prime minister of the UK from 1997 to 2007, can be described as cunning and sneaky, thanks to him being...
After over 28,500 migrants were officially processed after crossing the English Channel in 2021, evidencing the porous nature of our border protection against potential terrorists, it emerged in the run up to New Year that there is active consideration of parole for 92 actual terrorists. I have an alternative. How about letting them serve their ful...
DFor libertarians, it has been another alarming week as the political class continues to use emergency measures to control their populations and the COVID-19 narrative. In France, (absolutely not because there is a presidential race in April), Emmanuel Macron has admitted he wants to "piss off" his country's 5M unvaccinated, exacerbating the divide...
Most law abiding people are aware than the criminal justice system is failing to apply to the guilty the sort of sentences which are deserved, and which are a deterrent to others. Too many escape with suspended sentences, and even those who are incarcerated may expect the actual time served to be significantly less than that handed out in the first place, while the frequent redefinition of murder as manslaughter is clearly intended to keep the extent of the former hidden from the electorate, as the liberals who have dominated the system for decades do not want it to be clear just how damaging the abolition of capital punishment has been. The number of youngsters stabbed to death in London in recent years is proof of this.
However there is another side to the coin, which is equally reprehensible, and that is the manner in which people are being subjected to totally unjustified sanctions, as one of the most fundamental principles of British law is that one is innocent until proved guilty, something that is being weakened on several fronts.
The justice system is being subverted by changes, emanating largely from too much attention being paid to the uneducated emoters of social media, and their so called Twitter storms. It should be obvious that accusations are proof of nothing, unless backed by some sort of genuine evidence, but we now have those accused being treated as guilty, in particular in relation to sexual matters.
Of course rapists should be punished, but there have been many cases where the complainant is proved to have lied, or which rely on ‘He said, She said’, without any substantiating evidence. We have seen instances of men being sent to prison, only to be released later, when it becomes clear that the complainant had consented to sex, only to regret doing so in retrospect.
Even worse, how on earth is someone supposed to defend themselves against assertions that they did something decades ago, as seems to happen far too regularly. Most of us can’t remember what we did a week ago last Tuesday, let alone decades ago. That employers punish the accused without waiting for a conviction is a disgrace, and failure to reverse such actions when the person is shown to be innocent utterly deplorable.
(One ridiculous anomaly involving those actually being guilty is that, in the UK, if a lad of seventeen has consensual sex with his fifteen year old girlfriend then not only is he convicted of a crime, but must sign the sex offenders register, which will blight him for life. He is also frequently referred to as a pervert by the self appointed moralists of social media. However if the couple lived in Japan, where the age of consent is thirteen, no crime would have occurred, and clearly normal heterosexual acts between those just past the age of puberty, while inadvisable for other reasons, are not perverted. There are many of us who would not approve of his actions, but, although breaking the law should be sanctioned, the punishment meted out is excessive, and too long lasting).
Those who are actually guilty should be punished, but no accused person, who is not found to be so by a court, should be left in a worse position than that they were in before the accusation was made, in relation to employment, residence or indeed anything else. We have seen Hollywood film producers drop actors because of such unproven allegations, while recent cases have also involved loss of reputation and worse suffered by those who have done nothing wrong. The often heard claim that “there is no smoke without fire” is nonsense, as anyone, even anonymously, can accuse another of wrongdoing without it appears the need to justify such claims. It is reminiscent of the Great Terror which followed the 1789 French Revolution when anonymous accusations of being an enemy of the people resulted in many being guillotined when they were actually the objects of sexual or business jealousy, or even just of personal dislike.
This sort of trial by public opinion, not facts, is made worse by the attitude of the police, who now seem to consider themselves a Thought Police, permitted to pursue people for their opinions. That one member of a force told a member of the public that he was speaking to him “to check on his thinking” proves this, while the way the police went on a fishing expedition to find anyone willing to corroborate the loathsome pedophile, Carl Beech, who accused Sir Edward Heath and others of crimes they did not commit was despicable. One police spokesman stated that the there was substance to the charges, and actually invited anyone with any further claims to come forward. That other liars then did so merely proves that accusations without evidence should be treated with utter contempt. Incidentally the supposed need for policeman to have attended university is yet another nail in the coffin of common-sense policing, as experience is a better guide to human nature than book learning.
The only way to stop these offences to natural justice continuing to hold sway is to ensure that those who make false accusations are held accountable. In the end Beech did go to prison, but how many others have enjoyed their fifteen minutes of fame at the expense of the innocent, and never been punished for doing so?
On 7th January 2022, as the new law requiring NHS staff to be 'fully vaccinated' against covid-19 came into force, Health Secretary Sajid Javid was visiting King's College Hospital in London. Meeting some clinical staff, he was challenged by consultant Steve James, who calmly and rationally explained why the 'no jab no job' policy is nonsensical. D...
Trans: when ideology meets reality, by Helen Joyce, hardback, 311 pages, ISBN 978-0-86154-049-5, Oneworld, 2021, £16.99. This is a very fine book, which puts the case for an objective, scientific and humane approach to the vexed questions of gender, sex and identity. Helen Joyce is Britain editor at The Economist. She observes that science shows th...
Amid all the disruption caused by Covid a few truths have become obvious, that up to now have either been denied, or ignored.
The constant warnings issued by NHS trusts about the health service being overwhelmed by demand have finally made clear to many just how dysfunctional the organisation has become. Those of us who for years have pointed out that in fact this bureaucratic monster has an insatiable need for funds, due to the ridiculous numbers of box ticking bureaucrats involved, whose every response to a problem is to expand their administrative empire, while creating evermore absurd rules which must be followed by front line staff. Retired nurses and GPS, who have offered their aid in the campaign to vaccinate the population have reported that, thanks to bureaucratic intransigence, they have been rejected due to a supposed failure to meet the requirements of these pen pushers, even though the issues involved are irrelevant. No one doubts the commitment, and expertise of the doctors and nurses, but, thanks to the aforementioned facts, comments in the press, and by friends and acquaintances indicate that the myth that the NHS is above criticism has been debunked.
It has also begun to become clear to ordinary people that, at a time when many are losing loved ones, or suffering prolonged periods of serious illness, the constant harping on nonsense by the so called ‘woke’ is no longer a source of amusement, but is something which much be opposed, and indeed crushed. This rag tag alliance of sexual neurotics, supposed intelligent undergraduates, ignorant of history, and the plain deranged have had a good run of being taken seriously when they have rejected all sense, and denied historical reality in pursuit of their insane agendas, but more and more people are reacting with anger, not laughter. That they receive support from individuals in the entertainment profession, organisations such as the National Trust, and unfortunately even some errant members of the Royal family merely indicates that such irrationality can affect anyone, however eminent.
The bias of the broadcast media, in particular the BBC has also been exposed, as everything the government has tried to do in the face of an unprecedented crisis has been derided, criticised, and ridiculed. Whatever course is followed the BBC will oppose, making Boris damned if he does, and damned if he doesn’t. There is much that the Prime Minister may have done wrong, for instance in his embracing of the Green agenda, but there is no doubt that the left liberal agenda followed by these so called unbiased commentators ensures that he will receive no credit for those things which he has done right. These people, and I include those such as commentators on Sky News who choose to advise the Americans to transfer their support from the UK to the EU, think that they are there to make the news, not report it. The number of people who have stated that they will no longer watch the BBC makes clear that the latter has been rumbled.
However perhaps the most significant instance of realisation dawning is that, following the wide variety of predictions, modelling, and general advice, concerning the pandemic offered by experts, it is obvious that following the science is not as easy as first thought, and that scientists are not quite as infallible as their reputation suggests. Far from them being like Plato’s Philosopher Kings, dispensing absolute wisdom, they are more like the Gods of Olympus, squabbling among themselves, and pursuing their own agendas. While most are well intentioned some are also influenced by the desire for reputation, sometimes a liking for their fifteen minutes of fame, and occasionally by their connections with commercial organisations.
That the public have now become aware that their lives may be disrupted to no purpose should ensure that expert scientific pronouncements in general should be taken with a large pinch of salt, and actions taken only if the issues are examined dispassionately, and not subject to subjective factors arising from the fact that scientists are only human. It is to be hoped that the prospect of massive rises to domestic energy bills will awaken people to the fact that uncritical acceptance of the dubious theories of the vociferous Green lobby comes at a significant cost. While it may make some feel virtuous to airily talk of saving the planet the reality is that, unless the absurd demands of the climate extremists are rejected we shall all be very much poorer, with a standard of living permanently lower than that which we have known in the past.
Many scientists disagree with the claims that the theory of anthropological global warming is beyond dispute but, thanks to the craven action by politicians who have merely bowed before the environmentalists, we have closed coal mines, ignored the large reserves of energy available from fracking, and allowed substantial reserves of gas below the North Sea to remain unexploited. The fact that we are thereby reduced to buying gas from Russia, at a greatly increased cost, and forcing a greater dependence on those who wish us ill, does not seem to have occurred to the fanatics from dear Greta downwards.
If millions are not to be either reduced to poverty, or frozen in their own homes, the real cost of passively yielding to the clamour of an aggressive minority must be made clear, and a major change made to the direction of travel on energy policy, based on objective science, not on a supposed consensus that does not exist, except in the minds of those such as the BBC. As the public finds that the very real consequences of going Green involve losing their cars, and living in freezing homes, while paying through the nose for their energy, we may expect the uncritical approval of the environmentalists to disappear like the morning dew.
Fourth upon a time the Brexit elf went in search of the true Brexit. He had been over the moon all those years ago when the British people had voted to leave the EU. He looked forward to an early and complete departure. He expected the creation of a land of freedom. He looked forward to wise government from a newly independent and powerful Parliame...
The news on the18th December that Lord Frost was resigning his position as our EU negotiator due to his unhappiness with the decisions the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson was making, was one of the worst things to happen in these strange times. I personally was devastated. I have written to Lord Frost and reproduce my letter below. Dear Lord Fr...
Parliament is now in recess until the New Year. Unless of course the Prime Minister decides to impose further restrictions on the English population's civil liberties. Having already moved to (so called) Plan B COVID-19 restrictions, rumours abound at the time of writing that plans for a 2 week circuit breaker lockdown are well advanced. It has bee...
I have been lucky enough to enjoy a 57-year successful career in business. I was also a board member of Business for Sterling and of Vote Leave and before coming to the UK I had some experience in USA politics. One of the things I have learned over the years is that when things are not going well, you might be working on the wrong thing! Another va...
Those who know the Bible will have been horrified by the massacre of the innocents, which took place when Herod the Great, King of Judea, orders the execution of all male children two years old and under in the vicinity of Bethlehem, in an attempt to kill the infant Messiah. Today we see a different sort of slaughter which targets the innocent.
As a Catholic I naturally abhor the killing of so many unborn babies, as every excuse is made to allow this to happen, despite all the promises made at the time abortion was made legal. However, for the moment I will reserve that argument for a different occasion, and concentrate on the deaths of those already born.
I am sure that I am not alone in feeling a sick anger at the murder of poor little Arthur Labinjo-Hughes. As so often the authorities, despite warnings from concerned relatives, ignored the obvious abuse, but no one should forget that it was the evil perpetrators who are fully responsible for this terrible crime. When I think that this little boy is recorded as saying “Nobody loves me, no one is going to feed me” I am consumed with fury that an innocent should die convinced that this was true.
Now we have the equally awful case of the sweet little girl Star Hobson, who was murdered at the age of 16 months by her mother’s female ‘partner’ while the mother herself stood by and did nothing. Indeed, while any normal person would, if they heard a child crying, try to help them, these two sub humans just laughed. As usual the useless social workers allowed these scum to talk their way out of it, but this time it is reported that, because they were lesbians, decided to treat the warnings from the family as being motivated by an anti-gay prejudice.
When my late mother was in her fifties, and after having raised two sons, she, as a convinced Christian, volunteered to work as a social worker looking after the less fortunate, including children. Many of her colleagues had a similar background. Suddenly they were all told that their services were no longer required, as all social workers were now required to have a university degree, so they were all dismissed, to be replaced by bits of kids, who had no practical knowledge of bringing up children, and, worse, had been through left wing indoctrination by the so called lecturers in the so called subject of sociology, so they were obsessed with applying the nostrums of the Left, rather than dealing with the real world. As a consequence middle class white parents are treated as guilty until proved innocent, while those whom the Left love to consider victims by virtue of their ethnicity or sexual orientation are excused time and time again.
However, despite the deserved condemnation of these useless ideologues one must reserve one’s true detestation for the actual perpetrators. I wonder if those liberals, from Sydney Silverman, and Roy Jenkins, onwards, who liked to virtue signal by opposing the death penalty, ever thought of the blameless victims, who might have been saved if vile criminals, such as these killers, knew that they would pay the ultimate penalty for their actions. Even if in some cases it would not be a deterrent, it would nevertheless be just what they deserve.
I anticipate that such liberals will respond by raising the danger of executing the wrong person as has happened in the past, but of course one must be absolutely sure that the conviction is sound, and in these days of advanced forensic science, with DNA testing etc., this is likely to be true. Any doubt should ensure that the death penalty would not apply. From all that we know about these particular cases, from previous cases such as Victoria Climbie, and from those of many other children murdered by those who should be caring from them, no such doubt exists.
This is all part of the wider crisis we face regarding law and order. I recall that, when capital punishment was abolished, we were promised that 'life will mean life' for murderers, yet this has proved to be a lie. On a daily basis we hear of fatal stabbing, and even shootings, in London and other urban centres, and while the liberals try and conceal the extent of the carnage by redefining murders as manslaughter whenever they can, the true scale is obvious to anyone who examines the daily reports. Additionally, so often when innocent children are killed by those who should be caring for them, or left to die of starvation by feckless adults, the perpetrators frequently get away with reduced charges, and pathetic sentences. When one adds to all this the fact that jail sentences are rarely completed in full, most criminals being released after only half has been served, it is certain that lawbreakers are being appeased, not punished. The principle to follow should be that advocated by Gilbert and Sullivan's Mikado "make the punishment fit the crime", as deprivation of liberty is not the only sanction that can be applied. Of course much more severe punishments must also be applied to those whose actions aid the criminals, such as middle class cocaine users.
I recall seeing a cartoon in the late 1950s in which a woman was being beaten to the ground by a group of teddy boys, and a psychologist was rushing over saying “there are some young men here in need of help”. This sums up the pathetic attitude of those who have been allowed to dominate the justice system for decades. Although they no longer do so, at one time opinion polls were held on the subject of capital punishment, always showing large majorities in favour of its use, but still the ‘we know better’ brigade has had their way. The blood of countless innocents is on their head.
Perhaps one day we will have a true populist government, which will replace the current set of social workers with those who can recognize evil when they encounter it, and heed the demand that the merciless killers of innocents pay the ultimate penalty, but I am not holding my breath.
"We were the 28 MPs who saved Britain, we saved our nation and this is the inside story of how we did it." The Rt. Hon. Mark Francois MP The Bruges Group led the intellectual debate for Britain to leave the European Union and now we have the story from within, the story of the ERG from an MP who was at the heart of Brexit. 28 Members of Parliament ...
As Boris hatred reaches yet another crescendo the media, opposition parties and remainers in the Civil Service and assorted Quangos hugged their self perceived purity. Like a pack of crazed Wolves scenting blood, they moved in for the kill. The impending power disaster. Possible wars in Ukraine and Taiwan. The woke destruction of culture and free s...
After a lengthy period of mediocrity (even to the point of substantial anonymity away from London) since winning the leadership of the Labour Party, Sir Keir Starmer's fortunes have taken a substantial upturn since the Owen Paterson debacle. Whilst Starmer with his forensic, albeit leaden footed questioning at PMQs has from time to time landed a bl...
As the sclerosis of wokeism spreads globally ever further and wider, let's take a whistle stop tour of some of the latest ridiculousness served up on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. US Democrats hate their own country, UK left follows The left of the American Democratic Party hates its own country. Where once it directed its ire at Donald Trump, ...
The argument put forward by Brexit critics in the past, and now, is a combination of such: 1) The world moves in large, multilateral blocs – hence being part of the EU, the closest possible multilateral bloc, means the UK can stay an active part of the world economy. In an era where big collective action must be taken, from bulk buying PPE in a pan...
The decision by Poland's Constitutional Tribunal that the national constitution has primacy over EU law - a decision supported by the PiS government - has sent shockwaves around the EU establishment. The Tribunal decided that Articles 1 and 19 - referring to an 'ever closer union', and the role of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) respectively - ...
After the 2016 referendum, when did people stop just holding a firm or ambiguous position in a debate and become formed into parties? Whereas people were expected to move forward for the common good, following the result, they continued to believe their 'side' was for the common good and the other 'side' the opposite. As a consequence, some of thos...
The sun had shone all day, the people we had been meeting every time the Brexit battle bus stopped all of us anti EU, pro-Brexit campaigners, would pile out and meet mostly receptive people who were declaring they were going to vote to leave the EU in the run-up to the 2016 EU referendum. We had spent an hour or so on Worcester market and were on t...
Introduction The purpose of these notes is to present some facts about the campaign to stop global warming and climate change. The climate has changed in the past, is probably changing now, and will change in the future. The campaign is trying to stop the unstoppable. The natural factors affecting global temperature are very powerful: terrestrial, ...
How refreshing to return from Party Conference which was held in a state of near normality. The only element which was not completely normal was that there were less people. That I think was due to the fact potential attendees were worried it would in the end be cancelled or that vaccine passports would be demanded in some form. This in a nutshell ...
"Does the WTO promote trade?" is the research question that this literature review attempts to answer. The key word "promote" is taken to mean increase. The WTO is an abbreviation of the World Trade Organisation and has '164 members since 29 July 2016'[](WTO Members and Observers, no date) and was established in 1995 after the conclusion of many ba...
Recently, we moved home. I advised all the utilities and services by phone or online. I did so well in advance, so that no last minute hitch would add to a naturally stressful time. Everything worked perfectly, except the TV licence. At first, I was encouraged by what seemed an easy notification system. "Advise us three months before you move" the ...
Where is the evidence that this ruling has saved anyone from being exposed to sub standard or dangerous products? We have heard so much from the EU Big Wigs and European politicians about how important it is to have checks on goods going from one part of the United Kingdom to another – mainland UK to Northern Ireland - it is therefore vital to...
I had the opportunity to speak to Lord (Peter) Lilley, a former speaker at a Bruges Group conference who served in Cabinet in the Thatcher and Major Governments as Secretary of State for Trade and Industry and Secretary of State for Social Security – and later in William (now Lord) Hague's Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer and De...
Given I have not seen any coherent argument in the Media spelling out the true facts aimed At any members of the public who have been taken in by this ill thought through proposed policy of taxing private schools. It's time for a simple statement of the obvious to be circulated to as many people as possible. The notion Labour is trying to sel...
At Conservative Party Conference this year, we are delighted to be hosting the 'Liberty Zone' on Monday 4th October 2021 at the Science and Industry Museum, Liverpool Road, Manchester, M3 4PF. We are holding our annual Party Conference event this year alongside Time 4 Recovery, a group set up to pressure the government with oppositi...
This government's refusal to plan for Britain to be self-reliant in energy has produced a perfect storm of soaring prices, disrupted gas supplies and domestic steel and other essential manufacturing output compromised. Years of inertia have been the consequence of a near-religious belief that "the market will provide" alongside an unfounded fixatio...
You get to meet some interesting people on holiday, each year for several years my better half and I would return to the same hotel during the same two weeks in June where we would meet up with other regular returning guests. One of them was a senior accountant with a very large firm, he once told me every time they had to produce a cheque to pay t...
By Mike Clitherow Wow, so much coverage everywhere of the AUKUS agreement and the outrage in France. Must be the Remoaners dream to be able once again knock their own country and cry for an EU member state. "Those naughty two faced Brexit Brits " they will scream. For me an important point has been completely missed in all media coverage. So n...
On Wednesday, September 15th, 2021, the United States, United Kingdom and Australia announced a new trilateral security agreement, 'AUKUS', which has the purpose of improving collaboration in the defense sectors of the signatory countries including collaboration on artificial intelligence, cyber security, quantum technologies as well as undersea ca...
Hands up, who still thinks the Conservatives are a low tax party? If your hand is up, might I suggest you put it swiftly down and start writing some letters to the 321 Tory MPs who this week voted in favour of the biggest tax hike since the Second World War. Someone ought to inform them. Someone also might want to disband CCHQ come the next general...
Different opinion polls ask different questions. Survation's surveys of Scottish opinion ask, "should Scotland remain in the United Kingdom or leave the United Kingdom?" This question rightly offers both options. This follows the Electoral Commission's guidance that "A referendum question should present the options clearly, simply and neutrally." R...
SIR – Extra taxation on savers to fund the NHS and care-home fees is bizarre. Some paying the extra tax may have been motivated to save in order not to depend on the state in their old age. Now achieving that objective will be undermined. Others will be care-home residents, now having to make a higher tax contribution to fellow residents' costs.&nb...
I had the opportunity to speak to the Honorable John Manley, a long serving Cabinet Minister in the Canadian Government, having served in key posts such as Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Finance, and Minister of Foreign Affairs – among others. John Manley is also known for having authored the Manley Report on Afghanistan in 2007 and having been...
Clearly neither Wales nor Scotland could create their own currencies: they would have to stay with the pound or join the euro. And since the euro is hugely unpopular in Scotland (only 18 per cent of Scots want to join the euro) - and would simply introduce dependence on Brussels - that would mean sticking with the pound. Yet Alex Salmond seems...
The claim that a dark and heaving nightclub delivers the perfect breeding ground for Covid isn't particularly contentious. Lots of people packed tightly together, snogging, singing and shouting in a confined space with poor ventilation is perhaps the Department of Health's worst nightmare. Now, if you want to keep clubbing in Britain, the governmen...
Economic victory in a free trade world will always go to the strongest economy – and the disparity is growing. Against this a new concept has emerged: technology sovereignty. This recognises that IT infrastructure lies at the heart of a modern society. And it's about far more than access to broadband. Networked computers are not only essentia...
The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published its sixth assessment report in August, setting off a chain reaction of apocalyptic responses. IPCC was set up in 1988 to scientifically understand human-induced climate change, its impact and possible responses. But every IPCC report since the first in 1990 has been accom...
Is America's precipitous withdrawal from Afghanistan just a temporary setback, or does it signal a strategic retreat, an abdication from its role as world leader? If so, it will leave a gaping void, a vacuum that others will want to step in and fill. To be a world leader a country needs not only muscle (economic, military, demographic) but also a m...
Since Boris Johnson was elected with a thumping majority of 80 events have over taken his premiership. It was assumed that the biggest political headache would be Brexit. That proved not to be the case and in less than 3 months Coronavirus was upon us and all that has entailed. Sadly we have just copied the actions of the Chinese Communist Party, w...
The failure of the SNP to gain a majority in the elections to the Scottish parliament has forced them into a huddle with the equally separatist Greens – and into a series of increasingly unpopular policies. Dubbed a 'coalition of chaos', the new alliance in August between the Scottish National Party and the Scottish Green Party has been born out of...
The recent withdrawal of the U.S. and its ally forces from Afghanistan has been nothing short of being consequential. The ambiguity of Afghanistan's future has already been deemed a loss for the U.S. thanks to extensive media coverage and the Taliban's rapid conquest of the nation, despite Secretary of State Antony Blinken declaring it a successful...
Kendall O'Donnell and I, as contributors representing The Bruges Group, had the opportunity to speak to the Honorable Christopher Pyne, a long-serving former Cabinet Minister in the Australian Government, holding portfolios ranging from Education to Defence. We spoke on matters ranging from the domestic, such as Australia's Covid policy and the nat...
My fellow Americans: Three days from now, after half a century in the service of our country, I shall lay down the responsibilities of office as, in traditional and solemn ceremony, the authority of the Presidency is vested in my successor. This evening I come to you with a message of leave-taking and farewell, and to share a few final thoughts wit...
It is sad that of all the members of the House of Lords, only two had the guts to make a stance against the enforced anti-bullying and sexual harassment training course which has been inflicted on all Peers. For the powers that be in the House of Lords, to insist all our Peers take part in this training, is presuming that all 800 or so member...
Xi Jinping's acceleration of the shift towards an increasingly jingoistic Chinese foreign policy reflects a strengthening of Xi's position in China. Throughout the past 12 months, Chinese foreign policy has changed course in an aggressive manner. China spread propaganda about Australian soldiers committing war crimes in the Middle East and lashed o...
Kendall O'Donnell and I had the opportunity to speak to Jim Gilmore, former US Ambassador to the OSCE, Governor of Virginia, and Chairman of the Republican National Committee, among other roles. We spoke on matters international, regional, and domestic, on topics stretching from President Biden's foreign policy, European security and the EU's role ...
In 1988 the Victoria and Albert Museum in London described itself as: "An ace caff, with quite a nice museum attached." Today we seemed to have reached the point where the NHS would describe itself as “a great Health Service, with quite a nice country attached”.
Although there was some reason for the early panic about overwhelming health care this concern has now been extended by some of the more vociferous scientific advisors to a warning that a winter flu epidemic could overwhelm the NHS, so consequently we must all continue to live under strict regulations. Of course this begs the question of whether the NHS exists to protect our health, or whether the country exists to protect the NHS.
Unfortunately, rather as is the case with Remainers worshipping at the shrine of Brussels, many people treat the NHS as some sort secular religion, which must not be criticised, and whose demands for more and more resources must be met, whatever the cost.
The reality is somewhat different.
I yield to no one in my respect and admiration for the front line workers in the NHS, nor in my gratitude to them. However, as I, and others, including many doctors and nurses, have pointed out, the effectiveness of the NHS has been undermined by asinine changes made in the past few decades.
The ever expanding NHS bureaucracy, with its ridiculous number of so called managers, has absorbed a vast number of resources, which should have been utilised to improve front line services, without in any way helping patients. These pen pushers are absurdly overpaid, and overstaffed, resulting in the creation of pointless levels of administration. One nurse of my acquaintance tells me that she once had one level of management above her, which has become seven, the vast majority of whom do nothing but pass paper up and down to each other.
Another front line worker told me that, while they were constantly being told that money was short, Human Resources opened a suite of offices, which they could use for their endless, and fruitless meetings.
In my years as chairman of our office union, I encountered this non profession of HR, which converted personnel departments, who existed to assist staff, into an arm of management which rode roughshod over them, at the same time justifying their own existence by producing countless absurd policies which actually subverted the efficiency of the organisations involved.
The malignant effect of all this has been thrown into sharp relief by the fact that retired medical professionals had their applications to help out with vaccinations refused on the bureaucratic grounds that they may not have attended nonsensical courses on diversity, or even fire training. Bureaucrats put their preposterous concerns ahead of effective action. Many of these schemes arose because of the bureaucratic regulations emanating from Brussels, so are now no longer relevant.
In addition, in the past, nursing was a vocation, recruiting from a wide spectrum of society, yet now we are told that one must be a graduate to be employed. This is as ridiculous as is the need for policeman to have degrees. Fifty years ago a large number of professions were staffed by those who learnt through apprenticeships, and on the job training, yet now those who do not attend university are regarded as unfit for the very same jobs. When I was last in hospital in 1955 they were run efficiently by the matron and the ward sisters, but now they groan under the weight of useless jumped up clerks, while willing and capable nurses are lost due to unreasonable demands that they attend university.
We are all aware of the failures in basic hygiene in hospitals, which have led to the deaths, or serious illness of many people. One friend of mine went through six years of active service in the war without a scratch, but died a couple of years ago, when he caught MRSA in a ward, although he was otherwise recovering well. The manner in which fundamental tasks, such as cleaning wards, has been outsourced, has replaced those who were direct employees, taking a pride in their work, with frequently exploited casual staff, who are expected to do the minimum necessary for their employer to justify their fees.
I have personal experience of health care in Switzerland, which was exemplary, while I know from friends that the French system is also very efficient, and easy to access. No one wants the American system, where one’s treatment is based almost solely on one’s ability to pay. but the aforementioned systems are available on a sensible insurance basis, without excluding the poorest citizens.
To even venture the opinion that something is rotten in this particular State of Denmark is to invite opprobrium, but we cannot go on pouring more and more money into something that is not able to deliver. It is time that the whole NHS was reformed to meet the requirements of the 21st Century. However, given that the Left regard the organisation as a sacred cow, and that the Conservatives lack the courage to take action, no doubt it will continue just as before.
With more scandal and sleaze gushing out of Westminster than the Sussexes press office, one could be pardoned for glossing over the government's latest flirtation with the supercilious head of nanny statism. Last week, the Department of Health confirmed plans are going ahead to restrict paid junk food advertising, in order to curb childhood o...
A new consensus: Why the United States needs to re-think ideas such as the Wolfowitz Doctrine when thinking about dealing with China The U.S.A. is no longer in a position of primacy in the Indo-Pacific; to regain hegemony, it must alter its policies. U.S foreign policy, ever since the tenure of President Woodrow Wilson and his famous 14 point...
Panelists: Barry Legg (Chair), Lord Dodds of Duncairn, Sir Bernard Jenkin MP, James Webber Lord Dodds, former Westminster Leader of the DUP: On the recent resignation of Edwin Poots: resignation provides the opportunity to "move forward…in a more constructive way"The imposition of the NI protocol has been the main contributory factor to ...
Panelists: Barry Legg (Chair), Lord Dodds of Duncairn, Sir Bernard Jenkin MP, James Webber Barry Legg, Chairman of the Bruges Group: Our next speaker is Bernard Jenkin. Bernard is Chairman of the House of Commons Liaison Committee, on which all select committee chairmen sit. Previously, he was Chairman of the Public Administration Select Committee,...
Europäische Wirtschaftsgemeinchaft conference Berlin 1942 and the Mitteleuropäischer Wirtschaftstag (MWT) This was the report and conference by the leading Nazi economists during WW2 which planned a European Economic Community: http://www.jar2.com/Files/Nazism/The_Europeische_Wirtschaftsgemeinchaft_Berlin_1942.pdf When I started looking i...
The new Atlantic Charter, signed by the Prime Minister and President Biden as a 'reaffirmation' of the Special Relationship, is a somewhat mixed bag. The Atlantic Charter of 1941 envisioned a postwar world order we're all too familiar with, from respecting national sovereignty and democracy overseas to the aim of lowering tariffs. This 'New' Atlant...
Today marks 34 years since one of the most memorable and historic speeches ever made by a US President, and one that changed the course of history, it is of course when President Reagan stood in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin and told General Secretary Gorbachev to "tear down this wall". Now as we face today's challenges, our leaders shoul...
Three years before she became Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher addressed a meeting of the Exeter Conservatives. During her speech, she set out what freedom means. Among other things, she noted that it "is the right to move freely within a country - or to leave it."* It is not for me to presume what the great lady's opinion would have been on ...
A major City group has just published a report calling for an immediate development of an e-pound Britain could create a Western alternative to a Chinese digital/e-currency It is not generally appreciated that over 98% of UK transactional banking (by value) takes place in what is known as 'the wholesale market'. Less than 2% takes place in the reta...
I have become seriously concerned about green issues. No, I have not suddenly become a tree hugging greenie wishing to revert back to the days of horse and carts and candles to light our homes, my concern is with the measures coming our way to enforce a Stasi like, totalitarian green regime upon us. Many people are living in ignorant bliss of...
Alexander Adamescu is to be extradited from the UK to Romania, on an accusation of having, with his late father Dan Adamescu, bribed judges in Romania in 2013, in a case concerning a construction company. He asserts that the real reason is political - that his father and he controlled an opposition newspaper, Romania Libera, and Romanian Prosecutor...
A Bachelors, Masters and Doctorate. The three degrees which are considered a must have for a career in academia. Any person who knows the hard work and discipline it takes to receive a degree, will acknowledge how intense it is to gain all three. I am myself in my seventh year of university and in the second year of my doctorate. It really hasn't b...
By Professor James Blyth The Fishing Saga The story of the UK's fishing rights scarcely needs re-telling, but it is well worth remembering. They are part of the internationally agreed economic resources of the UK, and are located primarily within the North Sea and parts of the Atlantic Ocean. They fall within the UK's exclusive economic zone (EEZ),...
There are some things in life that should never mix, pineapple and pizza, baking soda and vinegar, but perhaps more than both of those examples is sport and politics! This last year has emphasised that more than anything, from taking the knee before every single sporting event to the supposedly controversial opinion of male athletes competing in wo...
The hollowing out of Irish independence: how the Irish people were made citizens of an EU Federation, by Anthony Coughlan, pamphlet, 16 pages, The National Platform, January 2021. The indefatigable Anthony Coughlan has produced another fine contribution to the debates about Brexit, Irexit and the EU. He is a lifelong campaigner for Irish independen...
In recent days, the internet has been abuzz with the news of Joe Biden's proposed hike of federal capital gains tax to 43.4% for the highest earners. However, unsubstantiated rumours swirl of another, far more significant reform to American taxation: an 80% tax on cryptocurrency transactions. If true, it must be conceded that such a reform ha...
Holyrood elections to the Scottish Parliament are now just days away and the debate on Scottish independence is predictably heating up once again, especially as now there is a second pro-indyref party in the form of Alba, led by former SNP First Minister, Alex Salmond. The debate often skirts around one issue, currency and it's rather a significant...
The Great Financial Crisis (GFC) of 2008 has left many cadavers in its wake; zombified economies with under performing companies kept under life support by a presumed modern monetary theory, not too dissimilar to what Japan embarked on in the late 1990s. Quantitative Easing where the quantity is never enough, and the pressure is such that central b...
Twilight of the Gods" was Richard Wagner's last in the cycle of music dramas called, "The Ring of Nibelung," which is based on old Norse mythology prophesying war among beings and gods that results in the burning and remaking of the world. It is always deeply dissatisfying when a negative prediction comes true—especially predictions which are meant...
Friday just gone marked the end of an era for not just Britain, but the whole world. The death of HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh will be mourned by people from all four corners of the world, for he was a staple of British society and a true great Briton. For such a staple of Britishness, and arguably the most recognised Briton after HM The Qu...
By Morten Dam The long serving eurosceptic stalwart and Danish MEP from 1979 until 2008 has passed away. After a time of illness he died in Arresødal Hospice in the north of Zealand, Denmark. Jens-Peter Bonde has been an influential eurosceptic voice for over a decade. He was a founder of Danish People's Movement Against EU in 1972 and has be...
The online gambling industry is in a tricky situation across the world. Each one of the United States is coming up with its own set of regulations, the EU never had a centralised regulatory institution across the continent, and Asia doesn't look at gambling with a good eye either. Currently, online gambling operators settle in the Isle of Man or th...
I had the opportunity to speak to Todd Muller, MP for the Bay of Plenty in the North Island of New Zealand, the Opposition National Party's Spokesperson (Shadow Minister) for Trade, Export Growth, and Internal Affairs, and the Former Leader of the Opposition. We spoke on matters international and domestic, concerning Britons, New Zealanders, and hi...
The main character and inventor in the H.G. Wells book, 'The time Machine', decided to travel through time to 800,000 years into the future looking for a period without conflict. If I was given the opportunity to travel through time it would be into the past as the future looks increasingly to be a very unpleasant place to be. The way things are go...
John Longworth was the Director General of the British Chambers of Commerce; he was also an MEP and co-Chairman of Leave Means Leave. A great problem with many politicians and most civil servants is that they don't understand business. The reverse is probably also true. The enterprise economy is alien to the political class and they tend ...
As the Chancellor prepares to deliver his Budget, we want to make clear a few brief advisories to Mr Sunak on what this historical Budget should contain. First of all, there has been plenty of speculation from countless newspapers and TV reports that the Chancellor is plotting tax increases, namely corporation tax and potentially freezing tax bands...
Bingo originated in Italy, and as it touched the UK's borders, Brits fell in love with it instantly. The love affair resulted in the springing up of bingo halls and charity games all over the UK in no time. As a traditional game dating back to the early 16th century, it later became typecast by youngsters as a game that older people play. Towards t...
I recently spoke with one of the co-founders of 'UsforThem', Liz Cole, on what UsforThem is and why children need to be back in the classroom. What is UsforThem? "We have been calling for children to be prioritised in the pandemic response. In particular, we have called for children to be back in school, fully and normally as soon as possible. Thre...
All except its acolytes knew (and accepted) that, but how spectacularly have the EU Imperialists lived up to expectations. In a recent article (Liberal Fascism's Last Hurrah?) I wrote: "The EU has never been interested in a mutually beneficial deal. To deal with that I offer something I learned in negotiating with a variety of corrupt countries' re...
On the matter of extraditions to EU member States, the new Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the UK and the EU, coming into force on 1/1/21, has added the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to the benchmarks of fundamental human rights. This opens new possibilities for contesting unjust and arbitrary arrest warrants from those States, as I...
I spoke to former Labour MP for Vauxhall, Kate Hoey, now Baroness Hoey of Lylehill and Rathlin (County Antrim, Northern Ireland), after sitting for 30 years as a Labour MP and spearheading Labour Leave during the referendum and the subsequent years until her retirement from the House of Commons in December 2019, she was made a life peer i...
The term 'Indo-Pacific' first came into practical use by the British Government in the 1960s during the height of the empire's process of decolonisation. As a strategy, it sought to conceive what the UK's position within the region would be as the country gradually withdrew its influence there. The structural constraints of the Cold War—which had m...
By Barney Reynolds Like it, or loathe it, Brexit is an opportunity for Britain to reassert herself as a sovereign nation. For those of us who are optimistic about our post-EU future, we have only to point to the recent fiasco around the EU vaccination roll out as one example of how "taking back control" has already been beneficial. But t...
We live in a peculiar new age of safe spaces and censorship. A world where the act of not adequately challenging somebody else's opinion can get you in trouble with the Metropolitan Police. We ended last year with a civic witch hunt (pun intended) against a writer of young adult fiction, for sharing her subjective feminine experience. We began this...
Many of us have been saddened to learn of the atrocious inhumane treatment by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to the Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang over recent months. Although constantly denied by the CCP, evidence of genocide is undeniable. The CCP claim they are offering 're-education camps' to Uyghurs, said to offer family planning programmes and...
I caught up with former Brexit Party MEP, Ben Habib who now runs the pressure group 'Unlocked', campaigning for an end to lockdown and highlighting the economic and social damage of remaining in lockdown. You can watch the full conversation on YouTube, with links to the videos throughout or digest a condensed summary on each question and debate poi...
In November, Nigel Farage tweeted, "Biden hates the UK," https://twitter.com/nigel_farage/status/1325166010106851328?lang=en. That statement may have been deliberately unnuanced for effect, but it contains more than an element of truth. So too, many on this side of the Atlantic wonder if Biden, hell bent to roll back the policies of his predecessor...
For years they were told that they were wrong, ignorant or xenophobes. They were excluded from power, and treated largely with contempt by the media. However, when the Second World War broke out the anti appeasers were totally vindicated, took over at the very top, and eventually saw the utter defeat of the barbarians running Nazi Germany. Al...
The 2020 Presidential Election, fraught and contested as it was, is over. Joe Biden is the 46th President of the United States and commands majorities in both chambers of Congress. At first glance, things look bad for the Republicans - but scratch the surface and a rather different picture emerges. For one thing, the much-vaunted Democratic ma...
